May 15--STAMFORD -- The percentage of high school-aged teenagers who say they smoke marijuana regularly has almost doubled in the last three years, according to a national survey released last week.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Partnership at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foundation, found that 9 percent of teens in ninth- through 12th grades reported smoking marijuana more than 20 times a month in 2011. That figure is up 80 percent since the 2008 version of the report.
"Connecticut mimics the national trends as far as what we're seeing, and the reasons vary," said Ingrid Gillespie, director of the Lower Fairfield County Regional Action Council.
One reason behind the increase is a lack of awareness about the harmful effects marijuana can have on teens and adults, Gillespie said.
"I guess a lot of people just don't see it as bad," one Stamford High School senior said as he left the school building to head home for the weekend. He explained that by "bad," he meant dangerous or socially unacceptable.
"You know, less people really care about that socially these days than I think did a few years ago," he said.
It's becoming normalized. The report released last week found that 27 percent of high school-aged teens said they had smoked pot within the last month in 2011, compared with 19 percent in 2008.
"They are seeing more peers in school who smoke marijuana -- only 26 percent now agree that in their school 'most teens don't smoke marijuana' (down from 37 percent in 2008)," the report states. In addition, 71 percent reported having at least a few friends who smoke marijuana, up from 64 percent in 2008.
As for harming teens' health, there were significant declines in the percentage of survey respondents who felt smoking marijuana would put themselves or others in danger, mess up their lives, make their problems worse, lose control of themselves or get depressed, the report states.
But that perception doesn't line up with the facts, according to Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin.
"Unfortunately, the youth sometimes feel that the use of marijuana, that there are no consequences that are associated with it -- that it's a safe drug," Conklin said. "But it's not their mom and dad's marijuana. The marijuana that's sold now is between 10 and 20 times as powerful as the marijuana that was around in their parents' day, in the late '60s and early '70s."
Growers have streamlined the process to produce potent plants through cloning and opting to harvest mostly female plants, which are stronger than male plants, he said. There's also an increasing risk that a bag of purchased marijuana is laced with other drugs, Conklin said.
"You have to worry about the marijuana being adulterated with different things. And in this area, it's very abundant in the use of PCP, moreso than other areas. You'll see marijuana often treated with PCP or heroine, and we see that a lot out here," he said. It's not something teens always take into consideration, Conklin said.
Shifting laws can also have an effect on attitudes about marijuana.
"It's everything from the myths about marijuana out there about how harmful it is to ... a confusion about the legalization of marijuana as opposed to decriminalization," Gillespie said.
Last summer, the state decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Before that change, it a misdemeanor offense to be in possession of less than a half an ounce of marijuana in Connecticut, punishable by a $1,000 fine, a mark on an individual's criminal record and jail time. Since the decriminalization, possession of small quantities is now punishable by a $150 fine for first-time offenders and a $200 to $500 for repeat offenders. But that's not the same as legalizing marijuana. Possessing these small quantities is still an infraction, similar to jaywalking or talking on a cell phone while driving.
Marijuana use among teens is hardly an epidemic. The majority of high-school aged teenagers still respond that they don't smoke pot.
"Sure, I see it all the time, you know, kids who smoke pot. But I've never tried it," said one Stamford High School senior, who described herself as a student-athlete. She and two female friends counted off a list of reasons they have not tried marijuana. While one said, "I see it as dangerous," another added that "it makes you do crazy things." But the ultimate reason they said they'd never smoked pot was simple.
"That's not how I raised. You know? I was raised better than that," the athlete said.
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Copyright 2012 - The Stamford Advocate, Conn.
